GEORGE GREGORY
Although George and all of his immediate family were born in Portsmouth there are some aspects of their history which are inconclusive, making it difficult to trace their origins with certainty.
George's father Samuel Fleet Gregory is known to have been born at Portsea in the third quarter of 1864, but nothing about his grandfather has yet been traced. His grandmother however was probably named Elizabeth and she appears to have been born at Portsea in 1826. It seems likely that the grandfather died in the 1870s and Elizabeth re-married a few years later though no marriage register entry has been traced.
Samuel Gregory probably appears in the 1871 census but it isn't until 1881 that the entry can be relied upon. In that year he was living with his mother Elizabeth and brother George at 8 Nance's Row, off Fratton Road, in the household of William Honey to whom Elizabeth was allegedly married. Ten years later Elizabeth, George and Samuel were the only ones living at the that address.
In 1892 Samuel married his wife Elizabeth who had been born in Portsmouth in 1869 but once again there is no apparent record in the marriage register. The 1901 census recorded the couple living at 129 Clive Road, Fratton with their two children, George (b. 1893) and Beatrice (b. 1894). Samuel was then described as a railway platelayer. Ten years later the family were still at Clive Road and George was working as a shop assistant in the boot trade.
In August 1914, immediately after the outbreak of the Great War George Gregory volunteered to join the Hampshire Regiment and found himself in the 1st/6th Battalion which sailed for India on the 9th October 1914. After three years there the Battalion was transfered to Mesopotamia where they were attached to 52nd Brigade, 17th Indian Division. After 18 months of fighting, the Turks signed an armitice on 1st October 1918, but death from disease and sickness continued unabated. George Gregory was one of those lost, in November 1918.
FURTHER INFORMATION
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) lists Gregory G., Private (281439), 1st/6th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment, died 17/11/1918. Buried at Baghdad (north Gate) War Cemetery, (Grave Ref: IX.C.11.). Son of Samuel and Elizabeth Gregory, of 49, Byerley Rd., Fratton, Portsmouth.
George Gregory is commemorated on the Cenotaph, Guildhall Square, Portsmouth. He is not listed in "The National Roll of the Great War", Section X.
Tim Backhouse
January 2015